Police Should Resort To Chases As Rarely As Possible. No-chase Law Would Tie Police Hands

June 09, 1992|The Morning Call

Almost every community has had it happen -- a police chase leads to property damage, injury or even the loss of life. Many times, it is innocent bystanders who suffer. From the unfairness of such losses springs the desire among legislators to do something about it. Such a law, as well-intentioned as it might be, would be a mistake.

U.S. Rep. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., favors federal controls on police chases. The Pennsylvania Senate has considered a similar state

law. At their centers, both get at a desire to do the same thing: make police work risk-free. Two cases from local police records illustrate how difficult that would be.

Perhaps the Lehigh Valley's most celebrated police chase, in 1970, led to the slaying of a Bethlehem police officer. But officer Phillip J. Fahy died of a gunshot wound after both he and the object of his pursuit had gotten out of their cars. Would the outcome have been different if the chase had been called off and the suspect confronted at another time? No one knows.

In 1989, a Hellertown officer lost control of his car and crashed head-on with a car driven by an 18-year-old woman. She was killed, but her death was not the result of a chase. The officer was racing to help police in a neighboring township answer a call. What kind of complicated chase regulation would have to be written to cover these circumstances?

Police should resort to chases as rarely as possible. Training, strict supervision from high-ranking officers, and an attitude that chases should not be part of everyday police work are the ways to control such perilous ventures. To their credit, police departments in the Lehigh Valley already do this.

A law making it illegal for an officer to chase a suspect conceivably could reduce the number of chases. It also would be cumbersome to apply. And because it would intrude in those difficult seconds in which an officer must decide it, too, could cost lives.

The nature of law enforcement is that it is dangerous. Good police officers do all they can to avoid posing any risk to the public. Officers who are reckless deserve to be brought up short, and civil courts and internal regulations already provide ways to do that.